For those of you who missed it, yesterday was the beginning of the much vaunted minimum wage hike. And for those of you who have been bumped from $5.15 an hour to $5.85, enjoy the first wage hike since Bill Clinton was President. This now should mean you can afford 1 bedroom housing that is no more than $334 a month (that is using the HUD formula of no more than 1/3 of your income (that's before taxes, by the way). If you are a single parent--good luck.
Fortunately more help is on the way, in a year you will be up to $6.55 (of course, that means you won't be getting a merit raise) and in 2009, you will be all the way up to $7.25. Historically, the minimum wage has typically at least tripled every 20 years, which would mean you should be earning $11.40--talk to your Congressperson, I'm sure he or she will get right on that.
No comments:
Post a Comment